William Lyon Mackenzie King

William Lyon Mackenzie King (17 December 1874-22 July 1950) was Prime Minister of Canada from 29 December 1921 to 28 June 1926 (interrupting Arthur Meighen's terms), from 25 September 1926 to 7 August 1930 (succeeding Meighen and preceding R.B. Bennett), and from 23 October 1935 to 15 November 1948 (succeeding Bennett and preceding Louis St. Laurent). He was a Liberal Party of Canada politician, and he was the dominant Canadian political leader from the 1920s to the 1940s.

Biography
William Lyon Mackenzie King was born in Berlin, Ontario, Canada on 17 December 1874, the grandson of the anti-establishment rebel William Lyon Mackenzie. He studied at the Universities of Toronto, Chicago, and Harvard, graduating in economics. He became Canada's first Deputy Minister of Labor in 1900, and he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Party of Canada member in 1908. In 1909, he became Minister of Labor under Wilfrid Laurier. He failed to be re-elected in 1911 and 1917, during which tim ehe became a forceful advocate of government intervention in industrial relations, as a mediator between employers and trade unions. He remained active within the Liberal Party, and in 1919 became party leader. He narrowly won the 1921 elections and reduced tariffs to gain the support of the Progressive Party of Canada. When he lost the latter's support in 1926 the Conservative Arthur Meighen formed a brief government, but Mackenzie won the ensuing general elections of 1926, thanks to the return of Progressive support.

He introduced old-age pensions, and in international affairs insisted on Canadian autonomy from the United Kingdom, which led to the redefinition of its Dominion status in 1926. His failure to address adequately the Great Depression led to his defeat at the 1930 elections. His effective opposition to R.B. Bennett ensured his victory in 1935, though apart from the negotiation of a series of trade agreements his response to Canada's economic problems was not very coherent. A supporter of appeasement, he backed Canada's entry into World War II, promising (mainly to appease French Canadians) that there would be no compulsory military service overseas. He gained an increased majority in the 1940 elections, and proceeded to switch the economy to war production, mainly through vastly increasing state intervention. To nurture the promise of a better society after the war, he introduced unemployment insurance in 1940, and outlined proposals for a health insurance scheme. As the war went on he was plagued by the controversial issue of conscription. He introduced compuslory military service at home in 1940, and in a referendum of 1942, a majority of Canadians supported the introduction of conscription for overseas service, relieving Mackenzie King of his original promise. However, the majority of French Canadians in Quebec voted against the measure, so that conscripts were not sent to Europe until 1944, this time with little opposition.

After the war, Mackenzie King showed little interest in realizing promises of a new social order, preferring minimal government intervention in economics and society. His curiously unimpressive legislative record stands in some contrast to the fact that he was Canada's longest-serving Prime Minister. However, his political longevity was due precisely to the fact that, in times of intense uncertainty and dislocation, he was the least divisive leader, preferring rhetoric to potentially controversial action, legislating only when it became unavoidable.